al.com: Huntsville mayor touts Oakwood's musical legacy

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle's earliest musical memory is of being a kid and sitting in front of his cassette player, waiting to tape Simon & Garfunkel songs off the radio.

"If ASCAP wanted to ever come after me they probably could," Battle jokes, referring to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. "We didn't have the extra money to buy albums. So we'd tape it off the radio. It was one of the things you did to have music in your life. And that was important."